Longtime skate shop cites increase in crime, sour economy

7:52 AM,
Jan. 23, 2013

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Trying to dig out of a lingering recession and fighting an influx of crime in Oldtown Salinas proved too much for Bill Ackerman, who next month will be closing the doors at Bill's Wheels, a favorite shop among the young skateboarders in town.

"Crime has spilled over into our store," Ackerman said. "Some of my guys don't feel safe. There's psychos, bums, people showing guns, cops coming in with their guns drawn because of a guy with a machete. Guns drawn in my store? You can't run a business like that."

At one point in the 1990s the shop was burglarized so many times that Ackerman said he was dropped ...